Members of the Infrastructure Committee attended the Falmouth municipal broadband meeting, along with many people from the community people. Falmouth is one of the only towns on the Cape planning for municipal broadband. At the meeting, they were looking for practical things to do, and ways to move the discussion forward. The town of Falmouth is driving part of the conversation – especially public safety officials, Economic Development Investment Corp., selectmen, and commissioners, etc. They have acknowledged the need to work together on projects such as this.
Open Cape has secured Crowd Fiber software, to see where demand is. It’s a way to map the demand and share data with the towns to start a broadband discussion with individual towns. The survey will be socially shared to create momentum in each community. “We went from having zero conversations to having discussed it with most of the towns,” Open Cape’s Steve Johnston said. So far Falmouth and Provincetown are having the most substantive discussions in moving broadband forward, with a handful of other towns engaging in their own conversations.
Broadband means different things to each group – municipal, business and residents – but it’s the same market.
In other parts of the country, broadband has been critical to economic development (Chatanooga, TN, for instance). Looking at the exodus of residents from the Cape, we can see the importance of putting broadband in place. With fiber, people can move their year-round businesses to the Cape, or keep their growing businesses here.
Reminders:
Start Up Weekend Blue is April 1,2 & 3 at WHOI. This is an opportunity to take your business idea and flesh it out over three days. The Tech Council is looking for participants and coaches on one or all days, providing whatever skill sets you bring. It’s a lot of fun for both participants and coaches.
John Landry will be the speaker for the Cape Cod Tech Council’s 20th Anniversary Annual Dinner at New Seabury, April 27, 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm.
The CCTC also sponsors the Mini Maker Fair, which is April 30.